Mieruko-chan Season 2 release date predictions: Manga compared to the anime

Mieruko-chan Miko
Will the anime production committee have Mieruko-chan renewed for a second season? Pic credit: Studio Passione

The Mieruko-chan Season 2 anime TV series will feature Miko Yotsuya, Hana, and Yulia being menaced by the Shrine God and a mysterious stranger named Shindou Romm. But when will Mieruko-chan Season 2 come out?

The first season of the Mieruko-chan anime series was produced by Japanese animation studio Passione, which is best known for creating the Higurashi: When They Cry Gou/SOTSU anime, the Citrus anime, Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers, and High School DxD Hero.

(Read our exclusive interview with the DxD producer, where he reveals his thoughts about High School DxD Season 5 and even a movie project).

The main staff and studio producing Mieruko-chan 2 haven’t been announced yet.

For the first season, the anime project was helmed by director Yuuki Ogawa. He’s best known for directing FLCL Progressive, but he’s also slightly infamous for directing the Interspecies Reviewers anime for Passione.

Writer Kenta Ihara handled the scripts and series composition. He’s known for working on FLCL Alternative, The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can EnterLeviusCautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious, and Full Dive: The Ultimate Next-Gen Full Dive RPG Is Even Shittier than Real Life!.

The writer is working on many anime sequels. In the future, the writer will be working on Vinland Saga Season 2, The Saga of Tanya the Evil Season 2, In/Spectre Season 2, and Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy Season 2.

Character designer Chikashi Kadekaru (Juuni Taisen) also served as chief animation director. Artist Makoto Uno (High School DxD Hero, Interspecies Reviewers, Witchblade, Love Hina) was the monster designer. Composer Kana Utatane (Re-Main) created the music.

The Mieruko-chan Season 2 OP (opening) and ED (ending) theme song music haven’t been announced yet.

For the first season, the Mieruko-chan OP “I Can’t See Them, Okay!? (Mienai Kara ne!?)” and ED “You Saw Me? You Saw Me, Right?? You’re Seeing Me Right Now, Right??? (Mita na? Mita yo ne?? Miteru yo ne???)” were both performed by Sora Amamiya, the Japanese voice actress who plays as Miko Yotsuya.

The first season’s finale, Mieruko-chan Episode 12, was released on December 19, 2021. The 12 episodes were released as three Mieruko-chan Blu-ray/DVD volumes.

This article provides everything that is known about Mieruko-chan Season 2 and all related news. As such, this article will be updated over time with news, rumors, and analysis. Meanwhile, let’s delve down into what is known for certain.

FUNimation’s Mieruko-chan English dub release date

The first season of Mieruko-chan was initially streaming in Fall 2021 with only English subtitles on FUNimation (not Crunchyroll, VRV, Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime Video). The FUNimation SimulDub schedule was updated to include the dubbed version in late 2021.

Here is the Mieruko-chan dub cast:

  • Alexis Tipton as Miko
  • Sarah Wiedenheft as Hana
  • Lindsay Sheppard as Yulia
  • Suzie Yeung as Kyо̄suke
  • Elizabeth Maxwell as Tohko
  • Michael Sorich as Mamoru
  • Erica Schroeder as Arai
  • Dawn M. Bennett as Mao
  • Steven Kelly as Junji
  • Sarah Williams as Hitoe

The Mieruko-chan English dub release date was on December 12, 2021.

Mieruko-chan Season 2 release date predictions

As of the last update, Kadokawa, Magic Capsule, Studio Passione, or any company related to the production of the anime has not officially confirmed Mieruko-chan Season 2 release date. Nor has the production of the Mieruko-chan sequel been announced.

Once the news is officially confirmed, this article will be updated with the relevant information.

In the meantime, it’s possible to speculate about when, or if, the Mieruko chan Season 2 release date will occur in the future.

So far, the Mieruko-chan reviews have been higher than average for a Passione production. That might be due to the merit of the manga source material, but the unique blend of horror and comedy is enough to make anime fans put the TV show in their personal Top 10 for Fall 2021.

Unfortunately, that relative popularity didn’t significantly boost manga sales numbers on the Oricon Top 30 chart. Mieruko-chan Volume 6 briefly made it to the Oricon Top 15 in the third and fourth week of October 2021, but that’s largely due to the manga volume released that month.

One boast the anime can make is how quickly an adaptation was planned out. Anime productions are typically scheduled years in advance, and since the manga series began serialization in Fall 2018, the anime production committee must have greenlit the first season extremely early.

Kadokawa has been pushing anime adaptations out very quickly compared to past standards, and the anime industry is getting busier. In early May 2021, Kadokawa announced that they intended on creating at least 40 anime projects per year by 2023, an increase of 20 percent from 33 titles.

Those are all good signs, but fans should be patient for any production decision. As such, anime fans should expect a reasonable wait for the Mieruko-chan Season 2 release date.

Mieruko-chan manga’s ending nowhere in sight

The story for the anime TV series is based on the Mieruko-chan manga series by creator Tomoki Izumi. Serialized in Kadokawa Shoten’s ComicWalker website since November 2018, the manga series is up to Volume 6 as of October 22, 2021.

New chapters are released on a quasi-monthly basis. At first, chapters were coming out bi-weekly, but after the COVID pandemic began, the author switched to releasing on a monthly schedule.

Besides the main chapters, there are bonus extras, side stories, and even a webcomic. The anime incorporated some of these omake into several episodes.

North American publisher Yen Press is handling the Mieruko-chan manga’s English translation. As of November 16, 2021, the English version was up to Volume 4, with Volume 5 scheduled to release on May 17, 2022.

Apparently, the ending of the Creepy Bell/Shrine God story arc had people speculating about how far along the story is until we reach the Mieruko-chan manga’s ending. This false impression was caused by a website misspelling a word in relation to Volume 6, but the author was quick to correct that misunderstanding on Twitter.

“You know, sometimes I see people saying that Mieruko-chan is finished, but is there something somewhere that states that?” Tomoki tweeted on October 20, 2021, “It’s not finished – there’s still a long way to go!”

Mieruko-chan Volume 4
It’s predicted that the Mieruko-chan Season 2 anime will pick up the story again in manga Volume 4. Pic credit: Tomoki Izumi

Mieruko-chan manga compared to the anime

When an anime TV series adapts a manga series there are multiple approaches. The biggest restriction is the time constraints of the episodic format and the adherence to 12 episodes required by the Japanese TV broadcasting industry’s schedule.

Sometimes an anime will be like a panel-by-panel adaptation of the source material with few extras thrown in. Sometimes the adaptation pacing is extremely fast in order to reach a good stopping point in only 12 episodes, which results in the anime skipping dialogue and scenes.

And sometimes, the direction of the anime will expand on the premise with interesting anime original content. The animators at Studio Passione chose this approach with the Mieruko-chan anime. However, that might have been due to necessity since early production would have begun when there was only a handful of manga volumes available.

The Mieruko-chan manga started off with Miko seeing her first ghost on the second page. By contrast, the anime version was a slow burn progression towards Miko’s first encounter with the ghosts that heightened the tension.

On the other hand, the comedic fan service was also dialed up to 11. Remember, this is Studio Passione, so they added extra lewd scenes and camera angles that aren’t in the manga.

Thankfully for those who dislike e*chi and fan service, the manga toned it done after the first several chapters, and the anime (mostly) followed suit. The biggest exception was in Episode 12 when Passione added even more fan service to the anime original ending.

The anime also shifted some events around and made some changes that enhanced the foreshadowing. For example, Yulia Niguredo and Miko’s father were introduced earlier. This change was important since it gave more emotional impact to the later story arc focused on her father.

Mieruko-chan Chapter 10
The anime skipped a horrific scene where a larger ghost was devouring everything around it. Pic credit: Tomoki Izumi

Here’s a guide to how the anime adapted the manga:

  • Mieruko-chan Episode 1: Chapters 1, 2
  • Mieruko-chan Episode 2: Chapters 2, 3, 4
  • Mieruko-chan Episode 3: Chapters 5, 6
  • Mieruko-chan Episode 4: Chapters Side Story 2, 7, 8, 9
  • Mieruko-chan Episode 5: Chapters 12, 13
  • Mieruko-chan Episode 6: Chapters Side Story 1, 10, 11
  • Mieruko-chan Episode 7: Chapters 14
  • Mieruko-chan Episode 8: Chapters 15, 16, 16.5: Extra 1
  • Mieruko-chan Episode 9: Chapters 17, 18, 24 (first several pages)
  • Mieruko-chan Episode 10: Chapters 19, 20
  • Mieruko-chan Episode 11: 21, 22
  • Mieruko-chan Episode 12: Chapters 23, 24 (some panels skipped), 25 (partial), anime original ending

Episode 6 was when the manga shifted gears and became more plot-oriented instead of slice-of-life comedy. The horror elements became more pronounced, although Episode 10 was disappointing since the balloon boy should have been a high-intensity jump scene that emphasized how it suddenly transformed and rush attacked without warning.

This tone shift in Episode 6 was more marked since the anime rearranged the timeline so that the shine (Chapter 10 and 11) was introduced after Episode 5 adapted a less serious mini-story arc focused on Yulia (Chapters 12 and 13).

Episode 9 also rearranged events slightly by first reintroducing Godmother Takeda Mitsue early. This took place at the beginning of Chapter 24, so Episode 12 needed to rearrange parts of this chapter to emphasize the importance of the shrine.

Mieruko-chan manga
The final half of Episode 12 ended with a teaser shot of the kitsune Shrine God and the shrine maiden fox girls. Teasing the Shrine God story arc in this manner is a good way to segue into Mieruko-chan Season 2. The Kadokawa sponsors scene where the ghosts start crawling out of our TV screens was also a great touch. Pic credit: Tomoki Izumi

All in all, it’s predicted that the first season’s finale, Mieruko-chan Episode 12, will find a stopping point corresponding to the first half of Volume 4: Chapter 24.

It’s the best stopping point since Chapter 23 provides a good climax with Zen Tohno’s mother and resolves the mystery of the cats that were haunting Zen. Chapter 24 then points toward the next major story arc.

One surprise was that the nightmare dream sequence in the second half of Episode 12 was essentially an anime original conclusion that foreshadowed the true danger Miko will face in Mieruko-chan Season 2. Shockingly, it even revealed the true form of the Shrine God!

The epic conclusion to the Shrine God story arc would have made a much better stopping point, but only if the first season had been two cours with around 20 episodes. Unfortunately, the Shrine God arc wasn’t completed until shortly before the anime premiered in Fall 2021.

The story arc is too long for a Mieruko-chan movie and not long enough for a second season since it’s only 15 chapters long and runs from Volume 4: Chapter 24 through Volume 7: Chapter 38.

The bad news is that there won’t be enough source material for making Mieruko-chan Season 2 until near the end of 2022. And that’s assuming the next manga story arc provides a good stopping point within the next 10 to 15 chapters.

The good news is that English-only manga readers who wish to read ahead of the anime can jump straight to Volume 4.

Mieruko-chan 2 anime spoilers (plot summary/synopsis)

Three favors have been repaid, thus ending Miko’s protection by the shrine maiden fox girls.

Miko and Hana go to the movies, where a mysterious man begins stalking them. To make matters worse, Miko has begun hearing those bells a lot lately, and she swears the fox girls have been stalking her at school.

It turns out that Miko’s human stalker is an illusionist named Shindou Romm, the “Enigma Syndrome.” The guy may be creepy and a huckster, but he apparently can see ghosts and has “power stones” that can deter ghosts.

Mieruko-chan Season 2 character
Shindou Romm may be brimming with shadiness, but Miko feels like he’s the only lead on getting help for her ghost problem. Pic credit: Tomoki Izumi

At first, Yulia similarly discounts Romm as a fraudulent exorcist, but she becomes interested in the man when he posts a video where he nonchalantly traps a small ghost under a glass. Yulia is shocked when Romm uses a common magic trick to reveal that his power stones seemingly exorcise the ghost, so it dissolves into nothingness. He even purifies a haunted building using holy water and a flying drone!

Uncertain about what’s going on, Miko determines to visit the shrine and leave an offering. Despite using her phone for navigation, she quickly finds herself led astray and lost in the woods while surrounded by many hungry-looking ghosts.

Mieruko-chan Season 2 spoilers
Just when the ghosts realize Miko can see them the fox girls come to the rescue. Pic credit: Tomoki Izumi

Despite being “rescued” by the fox girls, the ghosts keep coming and the ghostly shrine maidens seem angry at Miko. Just when she thinks all is lost she feels a tap on her shoulder and standing behind her is Godmother Mitsue.

It turns out that the shrine is not of this world. Miko and Hana should never have been capable of stepping foot inside, but they managed to accidentally wander in since all the conditions had been met.

Mitsue may have more experience but she can’t see the more powerful ghosts like Miko can. While Mitsue realizes that ghosts will often queue up into lines she can’t see the horrifying truth that the bigger ghosts are devouring the smaller. Still, Miko is simply happy and relieved to finally be able to talk about it with another human.

But there’s more to the Godmother than meets the eye. Mitsue already knows Romm as her former apprentice. And Romm’s intentions for the girls may not be benign since he asks Mitsue, “When do you plan to take those girls up the mountain?”

Worse, after Hana’s aura begins to weaken following an attack by a river ghost, both the very angry fox girls and the kitsune Shrine God itself come crashing into Hana’s apartment.

Mieruko-chan 31
The ghosts didn’t invade to simply help or to issue a warning… they seem to be going after Hana?! Pic credit: Tomoki Izumi

Unfortunately, anime fans will have to wait until the Mieruko-chan Season 2 release date to watch what happens next. Stay tuned!

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